Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1887-06-16
THE MOON AND THE WEATHER.
Some Scientific Facts Regarding an Ole
superstition.
From the Chicago News.

Some Scientific Facts Regarding an Old
superstition
From the Chicago News.
Adam Forepaugh sat on a nailkeg on
the elevated seats. "Chicago?" said he;
"why chicago is the greatest show town
in the woodland then the moon; why,
we've got another week of the moon be-
fore the change"
"What's that got to do with it?" the
reporter asked.
"a good DEAL" he answered. cts dry
moon. Whenever you see moon lie on
its back it never rains"
The above conversation took place last
Sunday afternoon, and within shirty six
hours thereafter the first rain in several
weeks were falling
OF all surviving pseudo-superstitions
that of the inference Of the moon on the
weather dies the hardest and the belief
that the socalled "changes" of the moon
are accompanied or followed by changes
in the condition of the terrestrial atmos-
phere is still to be found among a very
large number indeed of otherwise educat-
ed and enlightened people. A recent
writer IN the English Mechanic has exam
utes it to the weather predictions in the
almanacs of the early part of the century.
As to the moon changing" one would
imagine, to hear the majority of people
talk, that "change" of the lncoL is in
some sense cognate with a coHjuring
trick, in which the performer, after show
ing that he has nothing in his hand, in
simultaneously produces an egg, an orange,
or q ball from it. Now nothing could well
be further from the truth than this, the
fact being that the moon is always chang
ing-01 second before conjunction she is
waning, ,0l second after she is waxing,
and so throughout her monthly path.
When her (celestial) longitude is iden-
teal with that of the sun she is said in
the almanacs to be new when such longi-
tude differs 900 from the suns toward the
east she is in her "frst quarter whom
they are separated by 1902 the moon is
"full," and when she has travelled to that
point in her orbit IN which she is 9C9 to
the west of the sun she is said to be in her
"last quarters" in each case it being assum-
ed that she is viewed from the earth's
center. The use of the world "change,
then, in connection with her position in
these four points of her orbit, is solec-
ism, pure and simple.
But" people are heard to say, "as the
moon Influences the tides, why should il
not effect the atmosphere tooF To which
the immt diately obvious reply is that the
tides are semi -diural phenomenon, so that
on this principle the weather ought to
change twice day also a conclusion toe
absurd to be entertained. Nevertheless
the moon does influence the atmosphere
by causing the production in 1t of tides
so minuit as, under ordinary circumstan
ces, to be masked by other fluctuations
/ The existence of these atmospheric tides
was first definitely established by the OBJ
seryation of the late Prof. Daniel, but il
these minute tides influenced the weather
/ in the slightest degree, it must change
/ twice day-a supposition too ridicule
/ Gus to merit a notice.
! The moon on her back" as a weather
sign would appear to be a good deal like
/ the old woman's indigo test-if the dyt
was pure. wtwould either sink or swim, she
disremembered whicA." Mr.. Forepaugt
saws it's dry moon," but in many part
of the country and uniformly in England
tho belief prevails that when the young
moon is lying on her back"-in othe
words, when the line Joining her cusps il
nearly or quite parallel to the horizon
she is "holding water" and rain will Ger
tainly follow How either BELIEF arose i
would be idle to speculate, but the ex
PLANTATION of the phenomenon itself il
sufficiently simple. In the outset thu
moon is never much more than eithe
to the north or south of the ecliptic, Of
apparent annual path of the sun through
the heavens Now the line adjoining he
cusps fthe sharp points of her cresent) !
always square TO great circle passing
through the sun and moon. Two minutes
study of celestial globe will show hoy
variable is the inclination of the eclipti
to the horizon, and consequently that o
the line joining the cusps of the moo
also.
Finally the most elaborate compariso
of meteorological records made IN Franc
and in England where the Greenwich OF
servations for forty years we're CAREFUL
collated with the moons phases durin
that periodi have suffiCed to shoT that n
connection whatever exists between then
The SOLITARY observable effect of tn
moon upon our atmosphere was believe
by Sir John Herschell to be exhibited i
the tendency to disappearance of cloud
under the full moon, and this he attr
, buted to the heat radiated from her su
face.